Widespread confusion lingers

September 6, 2006

In July, a very depressing Harris poll found that half of the country — literally 50% — believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded the country in 2003, despite reality. What’s more, that number has increased from 36% in a Harris poll last year. Unfortunately, it’s not the only thing about which the public is confused.

A new Zogby [tag]poll[/tag] shows nearly as many Americans believe Saddam Hussein was connected to 9/11.

Half of American voters (50%) say there is no link between [tag]Saddam Hussein[/tag] and the [tag]9/11[/tag] terror attacks, while 46% believe there is a connection. […]

As with other questions, the survey’s queries about Saddam’s reputed involvement in 9/11 show Democrats and Republicans holding opposite views.

Indeed, on this question, reality has a partisan bias, though far too many people across the board are uninformed. Among Dems, 65% said there was no Saddam-9/11 connection, but 32% said the opposite. Among independents, 56% said there was no connection, but 39% said there was. Republicans, unfortunately, were the most confused, with 65% saying there was a connection, and 30% of Republicans saying there wasn’t.

The public doesn’t know much about our political leaders, either.

Jonathan Singer, noting the latest Quinnipiac results, reported yesterday:

Republicans have been up on the air in a number of congressional districts around the country trying to paint Democratic candidates as excessively liberal and too close of allies of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi — a San Francisco liberal. Leaving aside the fact that being labeled a “Democrat” in this political environment would probably help, more than hurt most candidates, new polling from Quinnipiac University finds that Pelosi is largely unknown by the electorate.

The Quinnipiac survey shows that a 53 percent majority of Americans aren’t familiar enough with Pelosi to form an opinion about her, the same amount as are unfamiliar with Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist. Close to two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) don’t know much about Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid while no numbers were available for either House Speaker Denny Hastert or House Republican Leader John Boehner.

So, considering all of the recent data, Americans don’t know much about Iraq’s non-existent WMD, the forces behind 9/11, or Congress.

And our democracy is dependent on an informed electorate making wise decisions.

Half of American voters (50%) say there is no link between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 terror attacks, while 46% believe there is a connection. […]

Even Bush doesn’t buy that line of bullshit. He said it himself.

Nobody’s ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq. -Bush

Sounds like the followers are drinking stronger Kool-Aid than the leader.

  • The other day I mentioned Jose Padilla to a class in American History (in the context of the Reconstruction-era ex parte Milligan case, which Padilla’s lawyers had invoked).

    Nobody knew who he was. I guess his fifteen minutes have come and gone. Without an informed electorate, we may someday be saying the same thing about Democracy itself.

  • We are so screwed–that is, the rest of us who try and stay informed, or who try and generally do the right thing. Sometimes it feels like one shouldn’t even bother, knowing that the majority of this country is truly and intentionally ignorant and that their ignorance is only going to screw things up for those who try.

    Anyone catch Katie Couric last night? Not much news, so my guess is that CBS Nightly News will now be an additional contributing factor to the dumbing down of America.

  • And our democracy is dependent on an informed electorate making wise decisions.

    That’s the problem: Our government — both on the left and right, but mostly on the right — doesn’t actually want an informed electorate.

    Seriously … if more than 70% of the people knew what the hell was going on (rather than, what, like 20%?), there would be a march on D.C. the likes of which have never been seen.

    Granted, I’d love to see such a thing. But as long as the American public has Survivor and American Idol, and can worry about Tom Cruise’s alleged baby or Lindsay Lohan’s weight, nothing will change.

    It’s a shame, really.

    We’re in an era where information is everywhere and the facts are readily available. Yet so few people seem to care and, somehow, so many have managed to become less informed than they used to be.

    How in the hell did that happen?

  • And yet only 56% believe the war in Afghanistan is justified, and only 28% believe we’re winning it. Doesn’t add up, does it?

    But it sure does explain why nearly 40% believe the war in Iraq was justified. Half believe Saddam had WMD and nearly half that he was connected to 9/11. The latter, had it been true, would have justified retaliation against him.

    How can people believe such nonsense, and how can we get the truth out to them? Or do they simply WANT to believe these things, to confirm their blind prejudices? Perhaps the latter, the way evangelicals dismiss all evidence confirming evolution. But how does that explain the sorry figure among Democrats?

    Tough problem, this uninformed, unengaged electorate.

  • Doubtful says “Even Bush doesn’t buy that line of bullshit. He said it himself. Nobody’s ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq. -Bush”

    This is of course 100% correct.

    Maybe this needs to become an ad for the November election. In addition to pushing the Dem positions there just needs to be continued playing of Bush’s statement about how Iraqw and 9/11 were not related and nobody ever said they were. What do the 46% who believe there is a connection do when their dear leader is on TV every hours clearly stating there was no connection?

    An unedited, unrefutable statement by the Bushwhacker himself is bound to raise doubts and fuel the anti GOP fire.

  • Americans don’t know about international affairs and national party leadership? I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.

    So what? Fortunately for the Founding Fathers’ image, politics under our Constitution is, always has been, and will remain, local. Howard Dean seems to understand this, even if the Democrats don’t — or are too busy jousting with ideological windmills to notice such mundane things as school boards and city councils.

  • Political wisdom is in short supply. This is one of the reasons I’m relatively unconcerned with the fact that such a small percentage of the potential electorate actually votes; most not only can’t be bothered to know anything about what’s at stake, huge numbers simply have no ability to even process rationally any information they might get.

    Part of it is the fact that we live in, by historical terms, an incredibly affluent society. One of our biggest problems isn’t starvation, it’s overeating. Medical advances and better nutrition have extended lives, and technology has provided hugely entertaining toys that even the very rich in centuries past couldn’t have dreamed of. Here in the U.S., we don’t have invading armies or wars plowing through town destroying all our possessions (though Katrina gave a taste of what that’s like to the gulf coast). People don’t pay much attention to politics because their lives are pretty soft, and they don’t feel they need to.

    A nasty depression/war/resource crisis might change all that. Large scale misfortune can concentrate the mind and force people to pay attention (though I’m not certain it would lead to better politics – see Reconstruction in the 19th century). But I don’t think any sane person would wish for it just to make people a little less politically superficial.

  • Clearly, this is a survey put together by the biased liberal media. You can tell because there wasn’t a single question about NASCAR, Jesus, or American Idol.

  • I’m not sure these polls mean anything, really. Despite believing the WMD/9-11 fiction, the country is still turning against the Iraq war, the Republicans and Bush.

  • Amerikans have their priorities in order. So they don’t know who Pelosi is, or find Iraq on a map. When asked who John Mark Karr is the numbers are through the roof. Ditto for the color of the cute little outfit that Katie debuted in.

    God Bless Amerika!

  • “Political wisdom is in short supply.” – jimBOB

    I’d settle for a little Political Knowledge. Wisdom is overrated.

    But just for a moment, let me assure you CB that the numbers for the people who believe Saddam had WMD or connections to 9/11 are lies. The Base knows they are lies, and they tell pollsters lies about what they believe, because they want the American People as a whole to think there is really someone out there who has a reason other than a desire to overturn Americans’ constitutational rights, to support Boy George II.

    Just like Ricky “Man on Dog” Santorum, spouting nonsense about WMD which he knows is not the grounds for the war, but which he presents as cover for his autocratic authoritarianism.

  • Head On, Apply to your forehead, Head On, Apply to your forehead, Head On, Apply to your forehead. I rest my case.

  • Nightmare on Elm Street.

    In an earlier post CB said Now, you’re probably thinking, “There’s no way regular people are going to read this 27-page report.” [The Neo Con], which is true; but is it necessary that ‘regular people’ do read this stuff? My opinion is that it is not necessary that everyone reads it — as long as some people read it, and have it available for reference. Why do I think this? Well, because I believe in osmosis.

    At the overt level, given the Dems huge media disadvantage (not being the governing party), it is supremely important to identify and hone a few — maybe 2 or 3 — killer bites, and launch them relentlessly and repeatedly. Three killerbite candidates might include: 1) Presidential Daily Briefing (Aug 2001) “Bin Laden Determined to Attack U.S.”; 2) “What has Iraq to do with 9/11?”, Bush: “Nothing..”; 3) Bush: “We thought they had WMDs, then we found they hadn’t..”. So: 1) Bush was warned about a terrorist attack and dismissed the warning; 2) By his own admission Iraq had no connection with 9/11; 3) By his own admission Iraq had no WMDs.

    Given very limited scope on the media, three incontrovertible facts can be plugged relentlessly. It will have an effect. The finer arguments can be used only in appropriate situations where the circumstances truly favour their reception. Otherwise, if you’re too clever, you blur the impact.

    The rest is up to osmosis.

  • Oh yes, such a new, contemporary problem. So new, and so contemporary, that H.L. Mencken wrote this, in 1924 (when the booboisie was all in a dither over the Scopes Monkey Trial):

    “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”

  • New flash…50% of the American People also believe in the devil!
    I wonder how many who have talked to the devil also listen to Bush?
    No wonder Americans are confused.

    “According to a recent Gallup Poll taken among 1,236 adults and reported last week in local papers, more than one-half believe in the devil (or 55%, with 8% not sure and 37% who don’t believe the evil one exists). One in ten claim to have talked to the devil. Some 49% believe that people are at times possessed by the devil, and 22% are not sure, leaving 35% of the population who do not believe in demonic possession.”
    http://www.pbc.org/library/files/html/4139.html

  • while no numbers were available for . . . House Republican Leader John Boehner.

    Hmm. I don’t know much about him, either. Is that a nickname?

    Comment by Jim Strain (16)

    I remember reading somewhere, that he makes a point of stressing that his name is NOT pronounced as “boner”.

  • Lots of the punditry think that Iraq is bad for the president because people are realizing that he lied about WMD’ and Saddam and 9/11 etc.

    They are wrong.

    Iraq is bad for Bush because people still do believe Saddam had WMDs and ties to 9/11 and that Bush is LOSING an important war.

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